Media Briefing: Publishers brace themselves for the zero-click era amid Google’s AI search overhaul

Publishers enter the era of Google AI search

“We no longer consider Google as a primary referrer.”

That’s what one publisher’s head of audience told Digiday in response to Google’s latest search overhaul, which will see its traditional search box turn into more of an AI chat window starting this week. It will allow for longer prompts and more complex questions, replacing the skinny search bar designed for typing in a few keywords.

It’s a fundamental shift, and yet another nail in the coffin of the traditional value exchange of the open web, where Google is the chief referral engine that sends users back to publisher sites, where they can monetize them. The changes will move publishers away from being destinations and more toward being information suppliers to Google’s AI search experience.

But, after more than a decade of algorithm changes, referral collapses and platform pivots, Google may finally have succeeded in numbing publishers into total resignation. This week’s sweeping AI search update — arguably one of the clearest signals yet that Google wants users to stay inside search — hasn’t seemed to catch publishers off guard. The writing has been on the wall for some time.

“It’s an inevitable step towards the next generation of discovery,” said an exec at a major global news organization, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It accelerates the trend we’re experiencing and reinforces the need to build direct audience relationships. The page view economy is now all but dead.”

It’s why publishers like Condé Nast have had teams forecast for when no traffic will come from search, to develop business and audience strategies for what a zero-click search would look like.

“This latest change has further underscored the value of a broad, traffic-seeking approach. The ecosystem now is both volatile and self-serving — it’s a nice-to-have at best,” the head of audience said, under the condition of anonymity.

These changes will make blue links in search even more elusive, and it’ll lead to fewer click-throughs from Google to publishers’ sites, according to conversations with eight SEO consultants, and SEO and audience development publishing execs. It’s the biggest change to the Google search bar in 25 years, according to the tech giant, which announced the updates at its developer conference Google I/O on Tuesday (May 19).

But there was a slight reprieve for publishers: AI Mode will not become the default Google search experience. At least not yet. Many anticipate that change to come eventually, though Google has not yet said as much.

Still, publishers know they’re on borrowed time with AI Mode, Google’s chatbot-style search that answers queries directly on the search page, and fear it will strip out even more referral traffic and ad-monetizable clicks from their sites.

But Google may be boiling the frog here. The new search bar is like AI Mode lite.

One of the updates most likely to have a meaningful impact on publishers is a new feature in AI Overviews, which lets users ask follow-up questions directly in the search results page by sending them into AI Mode. That’s a twofer for publishers, who have already seen lower clickthrough rates since the 2024 debut of AI Overviews and are concerned about the expansion of both AI Overviews and AI Mode. The search bar will now use AI to help users ask a question, like a super-charged autocomplete.

“AI Overviews were already extremely damaging to the web’s traffic distribution, and these further AI-enhancements will aggravate that damage,” said Barry Adams, founder of Polemic Digital, an SEO and audience growth consultancy for news publishers.

AI Overviews are now used by more than 2.5 billion monthly users, according to Google. AI Mode, which launched last year, now has over 1 billion monthly users.

“The seamless AIO to AI Mode flow that has been rolling out since January is now everywhere. Clearly that’s designed to keep users within the Google interface. It just isn’t necessary to click out as often, if at all,” one head of SEO at a publisher said, under the condition of anonymity.

Google maintains that when people use its AI-powered search features, they search more. And it makes sense that Google is steering search toward an AI-first future, under pressure from rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

But it sounds like a death knell for the open web. The longer people spend on Google searching for things, the less time they spend finding information on publishers’ sites.

Michael King, founder and CEO of a content marketing and SEO agency iPullRank, called it “a pretty dark moment for the health of the open web.”

Publishers aren’t panicking because they knew these changes were coming. Less reliance on Google search referral traffic is inevitable. How prepared they are for a zero-click search future will become apparent as Google continues to add more AI-powered features to search. 

This summer, users will be able to create AI agents in Google search that work in the background to track changes on the web and send alerts, such as a specific shoe drop or a new rental apartment listing. The search features will be powered by Google’s new AI model, Gemini 3.5 Flash. Google search will also start providing more interactive, custom experiences, such as building visuals to complement specific prompts.

“For consumers, this marks a huge leap forward into the world of agentic search,” said the head of SEO. “This level of hyper-personalization is a completely new landscape. That’s a big change for traditional publishers to adapt to.”

But not all searches trigger an AI Overview, and therefore don’t yet feed into AI Mode (news content is more insulated from AI Overviews, for example). Blue links haven’t evaporated. AI Mode still only appears for longtail, conversational prompts. And Google relies on search advertising as its primary source of revenue, meaning it needs to keep the search ecosystem alive, giving hope to publishers that SEO is still relevant. 

“If you’re a publisher that’s been crushed, it’s going to be very hard to climb back. But if you’re not, if you’re a publisher that still has search equity and it’s still garnering organic search traffic, then it absolutely is meaningful traffic. You can still win on traffic,” said Joshua Jaffe, head of growth and audience at 70 Faces Media.

What can publishers do now? Focus on protecting their brand, driving direct traffic, producing content that AI crawlers find valuable to increase the likelihood of appearing in an AI search experience, and diversifying revenue beyond traffic-reliant advertising, according to those interviewed for this story.

“Publishers need to start preparing for a world where Google simply doesn’t send traffic anymore. Build your mailing lists. Build your social presence. Build direct relationships with your audience. And beyond that, prepare for a world where agents and AI interfaces consume your content without anyone ever visiting your site,” King said.

And yet, some publishers are banking on the big tech companies realizing that they need to ensure they don’t “kill their hosts,” so to speak. They need to find an equitable model for content producers, for the sake of their own search products, which are only as good as their inputs.

“If they want to run a fair business model, and have a product with quality outputs, they will need to pay for quality inputs. They can’t mine their essential resources into extinction,” said the exec.

— Jessica Davies, senior media editor, contributed to this story.

What we’ve heard

“If you’re not doing paid acquisition, you should start experimenting with it. I know that’s kind of anathema to a lot of publishers… But at this point, if you do have the engagement funnel that drives down into predictable monetization, then you absolutely need to be testing paid acquisition around that.”

– A head of audience and growth at a digital media org.

Numbers to know

50%: The cut to Amazon affiliate commission rates for some publishers.

300: Roughly the number of NPR staff being offered buyouts, as the network works to fill a gap of $8 million in its $300-million annual budget.

55%: The month-over-month drop in Vanity Fair’s traffic in April.

72%: The amount of time links to articles in health sections on major news brands were taken over by Google’s AI Overviews in search results, during the first three months of 2026.

What we’ve covered

WTF is back button hijacking?

• Back-button hijacking – or when a piece of code manipulates a user’s page history by inserting something else when they click “back” – has been around for a while. Typically, it inserts a page that contains content recommendations or an ad.
• But Google is cracking down on the practice next month. Some see the practice as  a manipulative tactic that degrades the user experience, while some publishers argue it has become a necessary defensive measure against shrinking referral traffic, tougher monetization conditions and growing pressure on audience acquisition. 

Read more here.

The Economist prepares for a two‑track internet: one for humans and one for AI agents

• The Economist is testing new ways of structuring content to be read solely by agents, as AI engines increasingly surface and summarize news.
• The publisher is experimenting with agent‑readable versions of content that already sits outside its paywall — such as marketing copy and B2B sales material — and restructuring those surfaces for AI answer engines. The bet is that discovery won’t start on homepages or even in search boxes, but with AI intermediaries acting on a user’s behalf.

Read more here.

The case for and against clipping

• Clipping – turning long-form videos and streams into short, viral snippets – has become the growth hack of choice for creators, spawning its own cottage industry. 
• Proponents argue that clipping is a highly successful marketing tactic – cheaper for creators and brands than traditional campaigns. But critics say it rewards the most extreme, boundary-pushing behavior, nudging streamers to act out in hopes of going viral.

Read more here.

Amazon bets creator video podcasts can be the next TV network – if it can fix measurement

• Amazon wants to turn creator-led video podcasts into the next generation of TV networks – multiplatform franchises that can soak up TV budgets and spin out into retail, live events and social clips.
• Amazon’s message to buyers was clear: video podcasts are no longer fringe, they’re the new home for talk formats. 

Read more here.

What we’re reading

James Murdoch buys half of Vox Media for around $300 million

James Murdoch, the son of media tycoon Rubert Murdoch, is acquiring Vox Media’s podcast network and New York magazine for about $300 million, The New York Times reported. Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff will go with those businesses to Murdoch’s Lupa Systems, while company president Ryan Pauley will oversee the remaining Vox Media assets, including The Verge and Eater.

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti on why he sold BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti explains why he sold a controlling stake in the company to Byron Allen, giving the publisher a chance to reinvent itself around AI-powered content, direct audience relationships and new social entertainment formats, The Verge reported.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman supports micropayment model to compensate publishers

In a conversation with The Atlantic’s CEO Nicholas Thompson, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he thinks micropayments by AI agents is how media companies will survive the decline of traditional search and the rise of AI web scrapers, Nieman Lab reported. 

Creator journalism is a disruptive shift to the news industry

Former BBC News CEO Deborah Turness said creator journalism is the biggest disruptor to the news industry — and media orgs need to keep up, according to Nieman Lab.

The Washington Post’s newest podcast video show doesn’t get YouTube?

The Washington Post may have spent $80,000 on its new podcast video show “Make It Make Sense” (which features the Post’s editorial board), but it’s not doing well, according to an article from 404 Media. The views on YouTube are low, comments are critical, and most of the Post’s successful social video team are gone.